May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which provides a perfect opportunity to give a shout out to the queer Asian-American women who have been out both in front of the camera and behind it, giving a much-needed face to the queer Asian-American community.

5. Alice Wu

The Stanford-educated computer scientist-turned-filmmaker burst onto the queer scene in 2004 with her debut feature film, Saving Face, about a Chinese-American medical student, Wil (Michelle Krusiec), who falls for a dancer, Vivian (Lynn Chen). The film, which began as a wholly independent feature from an unknown and previously untested director, went on to be picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics, making it the first theatrically released film about an Asian-American lesbian.

Wu is currently working on her second feature film, Paramount's Foreign Babes in Beijing, an adaptation of Rachel DeWoskin's memoir about a 21-year-old poetry major who goes to China to work for an American PR firm, then tries out for an acting job on a whim and becomes an overnight success on a Chinese soap. … continue reading